This blog started out as a family blog. The name derives from the fact that, according to the Chinese Zodiac, all the members of my household are Monkeys.
Somehow, my hobbies started taking over, and I finally gave in. You'll still see an occasional "family" post, but mostly, this Monkey likes to show off.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Wooly Xmas Tree

I love how this turned out!

No problems at all with the pattern/tutorial. A lot of scope for variation here, too. Vary the height by either starting with more/less ch/sc at the bottom, decreasing twice on each round instead of once, decreasing every other round, etc. You could have a whole forest of different trees in no time!

I started mine with a foundation single crochet instead of doing the chain and then putting sc in that. It seemed like an ideal project for that particular skill.

Then, I apparently went with obsessive on this, and did the (sc, ch2, skip) on every round. I wasn't thinking. So on the way back up with the scallops, after the first three rounds, I skipped up a round. I did that again a few rounds later, just to break it up a bit, give it a little character. It's still pretty dense.

I was finishing this in bed, late, and came to the last scallops at the top. I hadn't taken the rest of my supplies into bed with me, so I had no scissors, no yarn needle, and no stuffing. But I was dying to actually finish it. Preferably without having to go get into my knitting bag, which was a whole flight of stairs and a couple of rooms away. My feet would get cold, you know? I sat there, staring at it, for a while. Finally, I broke the yarn (let me tell you, acrylics don't break as easy as wool - so that hurt a bit), pulled the end inside with my hook, and then pondered what I could use for stuffing (without having to trek too far).

It dawned on me that I was near the washer/dryer, which meant I was likely near some dryer lint. But, did I really want to stuff it with that? That took a minute to decide. I snuck into my sons room (his garbage can is just inside his door, which is right across from the washer/dryer, so it's the closest garbage can, and thus where the lint ends up), fished out some greenish tinted dryer lint, and stuffed it into my tree. (Ah! dryer fresh! love that scent.)

Back into bed in just a few steps, I picked up the yarn to start the bottom. But wait - I was still without a yarn needle. (Clearly, I should have just gone for the knitting bag earlier instead of trying to avoid that.) Ideally, I don't like to sew stuff on when I could just work into the edge anyway, so I decided that was my best option. I just started doing (sc, dec) around the bottom of the tree, then on the next round I decreased around, then broke the yarn (ouch!) and used my hook to thread it through for a nice finish. Worked like a charm!

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About Me

I sew, I knit, I crochet, I bake, I DIY, I weave baskets, and I watch a lot of movies. By day, I'm an accountant. By night, I read more than is good for me, and I try to keep my brain healthy by putting together 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles. I like my life.